DATE: Thursday, October 2, 1997             TAG: 9710020098

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Bonko 

                                            LENGTH:   89 lines

"GOOD MORNING" TO BOARD CARRIER IN NORFOLK FOR TELECAST

LOCAL TV NEWS and views to ponder while you wait for the metric system to catch on:

Anchors aweigh - When the supercarrier George Washington steams out of Norfolk this weekend for six months in the Med, a crew from ``CBS This Morning'' will be aboard to show the rest of the United States what we take for granted - the coming and going of giant haze-gray warships.

CBS says it will put Jose Diaz-Balart aboard the carrier to report live Monday morning between 7 and 9. Memo to Diaz-Balart: Right is starboard and left is port as in you just left port.

More changes - Here's the good news for WTKR's Jan Callaghan: From now on, you have weekends off. The bad news: they're giving your weekend anchor job to somebody else.

Callaghan, who picks up her notebook and returns to reporting five days a week, has been replaced of late by Gerald Owens and Stacey Baca. Are they on-air auditions?

Since Sandra Yost was appointed station manager and Michelle Butt became news director, it's been TV chess at Channel 3, with Jane Gardner, Ann Keffer and Callaghan on the move.

The Zahn update - In the latest treatments to purge the cancer in his bones, WVEC anchorman Terry Zahn was hospitalized briefly. But otherwise all is going well.

Zahn is eager to return to the anchor desk, but doctors are discouraging that because his immune system isn't what it used to be. Who knows what bugs lurk in the Channel 13 newsroom? When Zahn is up to it, he does woodworking, says his wife, Jean.

Late-night Pat - As The Family Channel's new owners begin converting FAM to kids' programming, here's a big change: ``The 700 Club'' moved recently from primetime to 11 p.m. (``The 700 Club'' also runs at 10 a.m. and 2 a.m.)

It's no secret that Rupert Murdoch and his partners who bought FAM from Pat Robertson and his son, Tim, would love to chuck ``The 700 Club'' overboard to make room for the likes of Spider-Man and Power Rangers Turbo.

Robertson has been telling viewers that ``The 700 Club'' is on FAM until hell freezes over. The skeptic in me sees another ice age coming, and by this time next year, ``The 700 Club'' on weeknights could be history.

If that happens, don't cry for clubbers Pat, Terry Meeuwsen and Lee Webb. The program airs on 238 stations, reaches 90 countries, and is about to pop up on the Internet in an audio version.

It's all about expanding the audience, said Michael Little, president of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which produces ``The 700 Club'' in Virginia Beach. Also at CBN, Patty Silverman has been named director of public relations.

Moving to Missouri - Jeff Rivenbark, who's been anchoring ``Newscan'' on the little 'ol Virginia Beach government cable channel while studying for his masters at Regent University, joins the real world this month. He's taken a job as weekend co-anchor with the ABC affiliate in St. Joseph, Mo.

He's a smooth news reader. Why didn't a station in this market hire Rivenbark? It couldn't be because there's an overabundance of talent.

She's ready for her close-up - Kelsey Walke of Virginia Beach, who's not yet in the first grade, is already a working actress with a part in ``The Wedding,'' an ABC miniseries in which Halle Berry stars.

It's been filming in not-so-far-away Wilmington, N.C., where much of North Carolina's $390 million-a-year film industry happens. That's great for actors in Hampton Roads looking for work.

Kelsey's limited to working no more than six hours a day. ABC says ``The Wedding'' will likely air in May 1998, but there is a possibility it will appear during next month's ratings sweeps.

Diana watch - We've been tracking the acting career of Diana Morgan, former WAVY anchor, since she quit TV for films. She was burned out, said Morgan who was famous here for her terrific wardrobe.

Morgan recently appeared on ``Babylon 5'' and ``Pauly,'' and she made a nice piece of change interviewing Hawkman in the Baby Ruth candy commercials. She was seen last week on ``Brooklyn South'' - the back of her head was on camera.

Morgan also has a small part in ``Titanic,'' reportedly the most expensive film ever made. Except for when she played a shrink on ``Weekly World News,'' Morgan as been type-cast as - surprise! - a TV reporter.

The cereal boxes go, too - Until further notice, WTKR has moved the weekend rerun of ``Seinfeld'' from Saturday to Sunday night at 11:30.

Mass support - It appears that Kevin Anderson's portrayal of an unconventional priest on ``Nothing Sacred'' isn't upsetting the readers of this column. Asked what they think of the ABC series in an Infoline poll, three out of five callers said it's great and take no offense.

Esther S. in Norfolk is an exception, saying, ``This priest is a little too far out for me.'' Her kind of a TV show is ``Touched by an Angel.''

Offended for sure is the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in New York City. The league, which announced this week that Isuzu Motors is pulling out as a sponsor, has organized a boycott of sponsors and is ``leading the charge against ABC,'' said president William Donohue.

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